April -June 2010 Newsletter

TB treatment should be free in Nigeria. This lady had been held to ransom by a local health official who demanded nigh on a months salary for 30 days tablets. Unable to pay she had become gravely ill. We have been treating her for the past four months and providing her with a balanced diet of food to help her recover. Whilst she will need treatment for a year in total she is making excellent progress.

Native healers and some more bogus pentecostal churches practice cutting and poisoning in a manner that can at best be described at physically abusive , at worst, torture. These twins were followed closely but failed to engage with vaccination and continued to use native methods. After treating a chest infection advice was given to attend hospital as pneumonia had developed. The child presented some days later moribund, feverish and dehydrated having had alcohol and herbs applied to the eyes and the body extensively cut. (right) Pre-terminal the child died a few hours after this picture was taken, without need.

With the loss of this twin and countless other children severely scarred either through cutting or the application of toxins or harmed through intoxicants and herbs, we must act in advocacy for those without a voice.
As a christian charity we do not hold with apologetics to either african or western ways of thinking or precepts, instead modelling our behaviour and treatment of patients on the character and teachings of Jesus.

It is of concern and baffling how few local churches, pastors and christians condemn these practices, unfounded unbiblical and cruel. How far they are from the example of Jesus's healing and concern for those least able to help themselves.
Many churches and christians seem confused and enslaved by erroneous teaching and fear, manipulated and in bondage to leaders literally hellbent on creating a hegenomy and platform for control through fear and superstition.

We took our concerns to the community council and the chairman, sympathetic to our concerns, agreed to use the public tannoy system to condemn the practice of cutting and to encourage to attend the clinic in favour of local 'healers'.
Appreciating however the tenacity of these beliefs, this is a first, though important step in changing health perceptions.

Of course better to do this without reciprocal hostility and we strive to do this with love, patience and forbearance, though in truth at times the moral outrage at such cruelty can urge a more visceral response.

With time it is inevitable that the simple things become second nature, treatment of infectious diseases, breast feeding, vaccination etc. But the converse is that it becomes increasingly clear where the true obstacles for change lie, and these are often multifactorial. The problems of native medicine, bogus religious practice and ignorance , like rocks exposed by the receding tide upon which ships founder, are the principal problems we now have to deal with.

Over the past three months we have liaised with the community to encourage a Traditional Birthing Attendant (TBA) to change her practice by undertaking deliveries at the clinic. By subsidising consumables the patients have a cheaper cost, the midwife retains her fee, and we have the opportunity to immunise and instil some health messages for the mother, creating a relationship so that the new family can comfortably engage to allow supportive care and effective followup.

Throughout the year we continue to visit patients in their own homes, many elderly and infirm who are unable to get to the clinic. Many patients are effectively stranded by rain, water and mud, chronic arthritis, untreated Parkinson's disease, stoke and malnutrition making traversing muddy alleys impossible.  One designated Health Care Worker collates visits for the duty workers to visit as seen here.                                                   We also visit some more remote communities in the mangrove swamps (illustrated above) where support is given for patients who in ideal circumstances would receive help and assistance at home. Defaecating between floor boards into water, and lying on filthy mattresses is sometimes compounded by the family restricting food in an attempt to decrease bowel activity and therefore add malnutrition to the misery. Again, simple education around hygiene, nutrition, skin care and treatment of acute infections and suitable pain control is often all that is needed to significantly improve a patients situation.

We continue to offer glasses that are often required for simple yet frustrating tasks. Threading a needle by kerosene lamp was impossible for this lady, and she was overjoyed to find a pair that allowed a precision manouevre every time, transforming her work as a seamstress!

We have been building up a little file of short videos that we hope will bring to life some of the issues we face to help you better understand the life and problems prevalent in the delta. Some are harrowing but with purpose.
We will be posting them episodically on the news page and on our youtube account over the next few months.
As Christians the mission is quite straightforward, to proclaim Jesus as personal saviour and to love as He loves us.  These are the commands He gives us, and we will continue to strive to work them out, difficult though it may be at times....